


paint me in trust

by SamanthaGirlScout



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Asexual Character, Fluff, Love Confessions, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-24
Updated: 2019-08-24
Packaged: 2020-09-25 05:07:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20371171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SamanthaGirlScout/pseuds/SamanthaGirlScout
Summary: Adrien's been acting pretty weird around Nino lately and Nino's pretty concerned...





	paint me in trust

_Paint me in trust_  
_ I'll be your best friend_  
_ Call me the one_  
_ This night just can't end_

_ Human - Dodie _

* * *

Sure, there was the usual caginess that he had when it came to his superhero secret. A secret, which, Nino wasn’t strictly supposed to know about. But, he'd known for awhile now. 

It was almost insulting to their friendship how Adrien thought he could get away with the same excuse over and over again and think that Nino wouldn’t figure it out. It also didn’t help that Adrien had this habit of stopping by Nino’s house to chat _ as _ Chat Noir, either. 

The exact manner Nino had put those pieces together was a story for another day, though.

Putting all of that aside, Nino couldn't help but notice just how… awkward his best friend had been over the past few months. Every conversation with Adrien was stilted. Chat Noir was far less suave whenever he stopped by. He’d even picked up some of Marinette’s stuttering. 

Which would have been cute, if it weren’t worrying Nino endlessly.

After a while, Nino had finally had enough. Whatever was going on was affecting Adrien constantly. And Nino couldn’t stand seeing his best friend suffering any more. 

It was just the two of them in Nino’s room doing homework. They were nearly done, which meant that it was getting close to Adrien’s time to go home. And, as time had gone by, Adrien had progressively become more tense. More awkward.

More… uncomfortable. 

Nino set his pen down on his desk, turned to Adrien who was sitting on his bed, and said: “Alright, what’s going on.” 

Adrien nearly jumped out of his skin at the interruption of his thoughts. 

“What. What do you mean?” A wide (obviously fake) smile spread across his face and Nino couldn’t ignore how squeaky his voice was. 

“That.” Nino pointed directly at Adrien’s face, the smile fell immediately. “You’ve been acting really weird lately. Is your dad bothering you?” 

“N—” Adrien coughed when his voice cracked. “No. He’s actually been pretty chill lately.”

“Okay. Then is it something that _ I _ did? ‘Cause, dude, if I’ve done something, please let me know. I’d never want—” 

“No, no!” Adrien said. “No. It’s not. It’s not you. We’ll I mean… No. No, you’re good.” He smiled fondly. “You’re really good.” 

Nino didn’t exactly have all that much time to upack how _ that _ made him feel, so he pressed on. 

“Then what is it? Because, I’m not gonna lie, I’m worried about you.”

“ It’s…” Adrien looked away as he shrunk a little in on himself. “It’s nothing.” 

Nino wasn’t sure when he’d crossed his arms, but he purposefully uncrossed them. He wasn’t doing this right. He knew that being too confrontational with Adrien could backfire. But he was just… so tired of this. 

Time to see if he could still salvage this conversation before Adrien ran away from it. 

“You know that you can tell me anything and it’ll stay between us, right?” 

“Yeah…” Adrien sighed. ‘I’m just… scared, I guess.” 

“What are you scared of?”

“I guess I’m scared of what you’ll think of me?” Adrien scratched at the back of his neck and looked everywhere, but at Nino. “ That you’ll stop being my friend if you don’t like what I have to tell you..” 

Oh.

So they were doing the identity reveal thing right now. 

Nino felt even worse, seeing how conflicted Adrien looked right now. From the numerous conversations that he’d had with Chat Noir, he knew that Adrien felt terrible keeping his identity a secret. Especially from his best friend. 

“Look.” Nino reached across to where Adrien sat and squeezed his knee. “No matter what I’ll always be your best friend, alright?” 

Adrien laughed. “Actually. I… That’s. That’s kind of—” 

Adrien groaned as his words all of a sudden left him. Nino stayed silent and let him work through whatever was going on in his head. It wouldn’t be right for him to force a confession out of him. 

Nino watched as Adrien took a deep breath. He schooled his own face, ready to not react poorly. And then—

“I like you. You know as… As more than a friend.” 

Oh.

_ Oh. _

Nino started going over all of the signs in his mind’s eye, but Adrien didn’t give him much of a chance to process this new revelation. Instead, he immediately began speaking again. 

“It’s totally okay if you don’t!” Adrien began flailing his arms around. “It’s just. You asked and I’m already lying to you about so much I—” 

He cleared his throat before continuing. “Please don’t feel pressured or anything. I thought keeping it a secret was the best course of action, but apparently I didn’t do a very good job of it.” 

His laugh sounded hollow.

“Sorry if it makes you uncomfortable.” Adrien started packing his things up, hurriedly. “I’ll just. I’ll—” 

“Hold up,” Nino said. He stood from his chair and hesitated a moment before sitting beside Adrien on the bed. “Gimme a sec, okay? Just gotta process the fact that you weren’t hiding some other big secret or something.” 

Adrien cocked his head to the side in confusion. “Like what?” 

“Like you were… Ladybug or something.” Nino barely caught himself. Now wasn’t the time to have _ that _ conversation since apparently they were having _ this _ one. 

“Oh. Uh yeah, don’t think I’ll be Ladybug anytime soon.” 

“Right.” 

Nino took a deep breath. If he was being quite honest, the idea of being something more with Adrien hadn’t really even crossed his mind. He’d been so focused on trying to be the _ best _friend that Adrien had ever had. 

But now that the idea was there… 

He couldn’t stop thinking about it. 

“Okay,” Nino said after some time had passed. The exact amount escaped him and he only had half an idea of what to say, but he’d figure it out as he went along.

“First off, whatever we decide, this doesn’t negate us being friends.” 

Adrien’s eyebros knit together. “It doesn’t?” 

“Of course not,” Nino said with a smile. “Anything else would just be… a bonus. _ If _that’s what we want.” 

“Right,” Adrien said. 

Some of the tension in Adrien began to drain out of him. Nino was glad to see him a lot less uncomfortable than how he had been for weeks now. He was still nervous, obviously, but it was nice to see him not on the verge of throwing up on a constant basis. 

“Gotta say dude, you had me worried that there was something terribly wrong with you or something.” 

“No. Just a uh crush and a dumb plan.” 

“A plan?” 

Adrien looked away, an intense blush starting to cover his face. “Until tonight I- I’d thought of telling you a different way. It was going to be pretty embarrassing, so probably dodged a bullet there.” 

“I dunno. I’d be pretty interested to hear what you’d planned.” 

“You’re just going to make fun of me,” Adrien pouted. 

“I would never…” 

Nino burst into laughter the moment Adrien leveled him with a look that clearly stated his disbelief. 

“Okay, okay,” Nino did his best to control his laughter. “How about I promise to not make fun of you? No one has to know how much of a sap you are. Yet.” 

“Yet?” 

“Well, I’m pretty sure if we start dating there’d be no hope.” 

A hopeful look crossed Adrien’s face. 

“Okay,” Adrien started. “Well, I was planning to ask if you were busy Thursday after school. If you weren’t, I was planning to walk around the city with you until I got up the courage to give you your birthday gift and then ask you out.”

“So, no roses and grand dinners?” 

Adrien shot him a glare. “I wasn’t going to trick you into a date, Nino. Besides.” Adrien sniffed in a way that was quite reminiscent of Chloe. “That’s for, like, date number three.”

“Sounds pretty cheesy.” 

“I thought you weren’t going to make fun of me,” Adrien pouted. 

“I never said I didn’t like cheesy,” Nino laughed nervously. 

The idea was still pretty new, and made him a bit scared himself of messing up his friendship with Adrien. But the more they talked and joked about it, the more the idea of dating Adrien grew on him more and more. 

“Oh?”

“Yeah,” Nino laughed as he tugged at the brim of his hat. “Though you’d probably have to rein it in a little bit. Kinda new to all this…” 

Adrien’s eyes lit up. 

“That’s okay! So am I!” He _ beamed _. “We can take things slow? Or. Or not at all. Not at all is cool too.” 

“Um… Slow’s good? Maybe?” He still wasn’t sure how he felt about all of that.

“Play it by ear?” 

Nino let out a breath. If he was being honest all of _ that _ didn’t necessarily appeal to him. It never really had. But, some of the little stuff that came to mind, especially the idea of holding Adrien’s hand, really stirred up some butterflies in his belly. 

“Yeah. that sounds... good.” Nino took a deep breath in an attempt to quell the butterflies that were starting to become a real nuisance as this conversation continued on. “We could start with that date you had planned?” 

“Walking around town until—” Adrien started, snark turned up to eleven. 

Nino rolled his eyes. “No, no. The one after that.” 

“An elaborate date with dinner and flowers?” 

Nino really wanted to wipe that smirk off of his… off of Adrien’s face.

“You’re really making me regret my decisions.” 

“Sorry.” He didn’t especially sound all that sorry through his laughter, though. “How about a movie after school on Thursday? My treat?” 

“Sure.” Nino smiled. “But no funny business in the theatre.” 

Adrien put a hand to his chest, faux scandalized. “I would _ never _!”

Nino squinted his eyes in jest for a few moments before they both broke into a fit of laughter. It helped to lighten the tense air that had been between the two of them for a while now. There was a new feeling in the air now, but it wasn’t nearly as foreboding. In fact it was light and exciting. 

Nino wasn’t sure what was going to happen next, but he was looking forward to it. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! This was written for the 2019 Nino Zine. Please go check out the rest of the stuff people created over on theninozine over on tumblr. Also, please tell me what you think!


End file.
